More than 1.5 million new pages of information are created every day on the Internet, and this figure is still growing. (The Chicago Tribune, Feb. 4, 1999). In essence, Internet users are faced with trying to access an information network that is conservatively 1000 times larger than the largest conventional library. To sort through this information morass, an efficient search engine is indispensable.
Traditional Internet search engines, such as AltaVista™, perform a search by using key words as search parameters. For example, a user might use “airline” and “tickets” as key words to search for web sites that sell airline tickets online. In addition, a new breed of search engines was developed recently. Exemplified by Ask Jeeves™, these new search engines allow users to perform a search by asking a question. For example, a user might type in “How do I find cheap airline tickets?” to search for web sites that sell discounted airline tickets. The new search engines are reportedly more popular than the traditional ones because their search format is more natural and easier to use for the average user. When a New Yorker Magazine journalist asked Ask Jeeves™ how tall he is and the result was a reference to altitude rather than his height, however, it is clear that even the best current search pathway is neither efficient nor sufficient.
The main problem with most of today's search engines is that they return far too much irrelevant information. At least three factors contribute to this inefficiency. First, vague or improperly worded searches often return unwanted results. In addition, many web sites pay the search engines for the privilege of being listed first in a search. Consequently, the first five to ten search results are often less relevant than some of the other web sites listed. Finally, Internet search engines categorize web sites according to the content of the web sites' meta-tags; but many web sites do not use meta-tags. A meta-tag is a hypertext markup language (HTML) text coding hidden from normal view and located within a specifically designated portion of the HTML code that generates the web page. This special HTML text coding is used to designate key words that are communicated to search engines, allowing the search engines to determine the relevancy of the respective web site in response to a particular search query. Thus, web sites without meta-tags or with poorly designed meta-tags are often deemed irrelevant by a search engine.
Many web site owners advertise their web site addresses in the media to attempt to reach potential customers. For example, such advertisement may be announced over the radio or appear on a billboard. Because of the inefficiency of the current Internet search engines, however, if a potential customer hears or sees the advertisement, but is not in a position to accurately write down the web site address, the likelihood of the customer finding the web site advertised is minimal. Frequently, the advertised web address is a phonetic domain name which often makes the URL quite difficult to spell. As a result, the interest captured by the advertisement is often wasted when the potential customer cannot find the advertiser's web page. Therefore, there is a need for a directed search that would allow a potential customer to search for a desired web site advertiser without relying on proper search terms, key words or the existence and relevancy of the web site's meta-tags.